The almost instantaneous - and spirited - debate that ensued over our report from the moment we posted it on Facebook Monday attests to that.

We can certainly understand the mayor's desire to make a point against teen thuggery and gunplay in general, and we salute her for her decisiveness and speed in making that point.

However, after due consideration we are not sure her action will have the intended consequences, other than to make a demonstration that "I'm really mad, and I'm not going to take it anymore."

We are struck by the parallels between Mayor Sherry Capello's punitive actions and those taken by the NCAA against Penn State football in response the Freeh Report on the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal. We also thought the NCAA sanctions were overly harsh and grotesquely misdirected, and we said so.

Consider: In both cases, the offending parties had already been apprehended and charged with criminal offenses before the sanctions were imposed. In both cases, the only people hurt by the punitive actions were not guilty of any wrongdoing in the first place.

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After all, there's certainly nothing intrinsically wrong with playing playground basketball, any more than there's anything intrinsically wrong with playing (or having played) football at Penn State.

It's not like the basketball court at Southeast Playground has been a hotbed of trouble through the years. On the contrary: It's been a place where the city's teens and young adults have gotten a lot of clean, healthy exercise and learned all the lessons that go along with team play and self-policed athletics - much like Penn State's football program has been a shining example of all that can be good about collegiate athletics.

In fact, for several years the playground has hosted an event raising money for a Relay for Life team. It's filled with people, music, food, fun and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The event is uplifting; the venue is near-perfect.

We fear that the mayor's critics on Facebook may be right to suggest that now, instead of participating in a good, constructive activity like basketball, scores of the city's young people will be left to find something else to do with their time.

We offer two suggestions, both far less punitive than the mayor's decision to close the playground, and both that have the chance to actually increase community involvement and awareness.

Because the park has shown to be a good host for a larger event, let it play host to an anti-violence rally. The event could mirror the event we detailed above for the Relay for Life team; at least there are some good ideas to serve as starting points.

The site has its history, good and now bad. Let it be the venue for bringing something positive out of a negative.

Second, perhaps it's time to revisit the idea of a turn-in-your-guns event, such as the city held some time ago. That event brought in about 50 or so guns, according to our collective memory. Not overwhelming, but it doesn't hurt to have those guns off the street and with no further potential of falling into the wrong hands.

The park isn't the proper venue for that part of our suggestion, but consider: If the rally we proposed were coupled with longer-term police and city government cooperation to take illegal guns off the street, again, it serves to build something positive from what began as a negative action.

It's better than deflating a ball and sending everyone home; and we would like to think community support for it would be greater than any criticism of it.